Extreme luminosity imaging conical spectrograph

A new configuration for a two-dimensional (2D) imaging x-ray spectrograph based on a conically bent crystal is introduced: extreme luminosity imaging conical spectrograph (ELICS). The ELICS configuration has important advantages over spectrographs that are based on cylindrically and spherically bent crystals. The main advantages are that a wide variety of large-aperture crystals can be used, and any desired magnification in the spatial direction (the direction orthogonal to spectral dispersion) can be achieved by the use of different experimental arrangements. The ELICS can be set up so that the detector plane is almost perpendicular to the incident rays, a good configuration for time-resolved spectroscopy. ELICSs with mica crystals of 45×90mm2 aperture have been successfully used for imaging on the XP and COBRA pulsed power generators, yielding spectra with spatial resolution in 2D of Z pinches and X pinches.